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Warsong Gulch: like Soccer, with more blood

In Australia we call the world game Soccer. Of course we have to, with more than 4 codes of football (the main ones being Aussie Rules, Rugby Union, Rugby League and Soccer) we need to be clear about which game we speak of. Growing up in Melbourne, some will argue the heart of Aussie rules, I follow this code. I was fortunate enough to have a father that respected all sport, so Soccer is familiar enough to me. One of the fundamental differences between Aussie Rules and Soccer is the final scoreboard. Aussie rules is a high scoring game, usually for both sides, so there is never a lack of GOAL! moments. Soccer… Well 0/0 is as valid a result as any. Simply looking at a final scoreboard just doesn’t give an indication of whether a game is good or not. The same us true of Warsong Gulch. The game will end in 25 minutes no matter what and a 0/0 result is just as valid (hey, if I’m not getting extra honor, neither are the Horde!). Everyone loves a quick 3 cap, I am no exception, but often that 3 cap is the result of the complete failure of one team rather than the excellence of another
. Time is very important, you can win or lose a game by the clock. Just because there are only 2 minutes on the clock doesn’t meant that the game is over. There are achievements for capping within 75 seconds. With a chain of healers, a flag carriers feet won’t even touch midfield. When I see there is only 10 minutes left on the clock, I get excited. Those 10 minutes would be nail biting if I could take my hands from the keyboard. Whether the score is 0/0 at that point due to both teams being great, or absolute crap, at least we are evenly matched. Last night I was in a WSG where the flags were taken and held for nearly the whole 25 minutes, but never capped. The majority of our team were turtled with our flag carrier. The enemy flag carrier was surrounded by a ring of healers. For 23 minutes a few of us tried to take down that flag carrier, slowly picking off the healers, having them replaced.

It was insane!

The FC finally made a mistake, he ran from us… and his healers. He was done, but before we could return the flag a rogue nicked it and we started burning him down. We got him, but with so little time on the clock that we couldn’t cap.

IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!

Another game we were behind 0/1 the whole game. At the 21 minute mark we capped. Our team ineffectually turtled (don’t (just) turtle folks, it’s easier for one player to get out with a flag than it is for 10 people to guard it), but managed to take the 1 flag carrier down. I hadn’t joined them in the turtle, I was in the horde base buying us insurance. The insurance I bought was the Horde flag, while I held that, they couldn’t cap even if they got the flag to the other end. I ran to the point behind their graveyard, the longest journey for them if they really, really wanted to cap.

Horde cap.. damn them!

And they needed to cap. In WSG if the caps are equal, the last team to cap wins. They failed…

Alliance cap.. YAY!

We won!

I hold off 8 of them in the tunnel so they can't cap

The thing about WSG is that the flag returns (or holds) are nearly as important as the caps.

Im only a minorly Pvp intrested priest, just love the ability from time to time…tanks don’t though since PoV get changed facing the lifegripping priest unless they are running towards you anyway.

I usually us this to save huntards or rogues during Asaad’s lightning ability in VP ow… and don’t lifegrip anybody thru the rotating electric barriers during DM “vanessa’s nightmare” they don’t blink from one spot to another but travel along a path = death!

I generally avoid WSG like the plague. Just because my experience has generally been so painful. But on whim, and since it was WSG weekend, I did a bunch this past weekend. And?

And I was shocked. Because I won probably 70% of the matches. I asked on gchat whether this was what it felt like to be Horde.

My biggest pet peeve was when our flag carrier would start running around like a crazy person once Horde came and tried to take him down. I hate having to explain to people on your own team that you should not run away from your healers. Its better to stand there and take the beating, and dps or heal as you can, rather than running away from me while I am being cced. Running away from your healers will only guarantee your death.

Yes it has been a good weekend for the Alliance, but I think in general we are doing better… not sure why, but unless it’s a partial pre-made (and even then), there is a good chance Alliance will win.

I remembered the lesson of staying close to my healer last night. 4 Horde were trying to take me down in the flagroom… I started to run, when I saw the comforting heal graphic… so I turned around and ran circles about the Horde in the loving range of my healer… did that for some 5 minutes.

Which just reinforces the fact that the flag carrier is important, but they are secondary if there is a healer… CC the FC, kill the heals, destroy the FC.

Yeah I think in general Alliance are doing better – there are still some games where I just cringe at where players are at (although as someone else reported in an AB the map seems to be glitchy/slow at updating at present). Two theories I have – both which may apply:
1. Opening up to all players rather than just your battlegroup has helped because it does mean that you end up with a biased battlegroup (comparing the differences between TB wins and BG wins for example shows the difference from a realm perspective – I maybe managed to do TB 1/3 weeks because we hold it so rarely).

I sometimes get a chance to play first thing in the morning so with more of the US folk and usually end up winning those games, whereas in the evenings it’s more a 40/60 ratio. So I wonder if some of the horde/alliance bias is more focused horde side in Australia as well?

2. In general the PvE components of the game are less approachable in Cataclysm – so if you don’t have a lot of time, or irregular time it is easier to get into BGs. I know this has been the case for me – unless I have at least an hour alloted play time I will generally end up PvPing instead of running a dungeon. This means there are more people in general in the BGs and will generally balance out the ratios.

It could also tie into there being an ‘end-game’ for BGs with rated battle grounds. I know I’m not a big fan of arena (although a lot of that is just ignorance and lack of experience) – I prefer the concept of BGs and so I’ve done more PvP with the end intention of doing some rated BGs.

But that all said – I love those epic games. I had a great AB on Sunday night. It wasn’t one of those games where everyone was brilliant and tip-top – quite the opposite (although it was nice to solo defend nodes as a prot pally against multiple horde). But in the end we lost by 30 points (scoring a bunch of horde the achievement I’m sure) – we lost, but I loved it because it was so close. Now if only we had actually managed to hold our third base for about 30 more seconds the results would have been different!

Yeah with work and other RL pressures right now, the idea of raiding for hours on end doesn’t appeal to me, in part because I don’t want to drop out after an hour because I am too knackered to continue.

The other aspect is the requirement on “perfection”, standing in the bad in a raid has greater consequences for 9 other people than it does in a BG.

However BGs I just go with the flow… it might be over in 10 minutes when I can reevaluate how I feel and continue if I wish.

The dance is made up on the fly, so I don’t have to remember transitions, I can just react.